Rainshadow Road

face, holding her steady as his mouth descended. He was gentle, easing her into the kiss. She opened for him instinctively, the wrong instincts winning out over the right ones.

The kiss beguiled her, just for a moment, into thinking she had nothing left to lose. This is crazy, she thought, but his tongue touched hers, and her hand slid up and groped for the back of his neck. Sensation flowed into the spaces between her heartbeats.

Sam was the one to end the kiss. He kept his arms around Lucy until she could find her balance. Bewildered and disarmed, Lucy finally managed to pull away from him. She headed up the front steps.

“I’ll call you soon,” she heard him say.

Pausing, Lucy glanced at him over her shoulder. “It wouldn’t be a good idea,” she said in a low voice.

They both knew she wasn’t referring to the condo.

“No one’s going to rush you into anything,” he said. “You call the shots, Lucy.”

A little huff of laughter escaped her. “If you have to tell someone they call the shots, they’re not really calling the shots.” And she went up the rest of the stairs without looking back.

Eight

“It’s too soon,” Kevin had protested, when Alice brought up the idea of marriage. “You just moved in.”

She had given him a long, hard look. “What kind of time line are we looking at?”

“Time line,” he repeated dazedly.

“Six months? A year? I’m not going to wait forever, Kevin. A lot of guys are married at your age. What’s the problem? You said you’re in love with me.”

“I am, but—”

“What else is there to know about me? What’s the holdup? I have no problem with leaving, if you feel like this relationship isn’t the right fit.”

“I never said that.”

But Alice had decided that something big needed to happen for her, especially in light of having just lost her scriptwriting job. A call had come from her agent, who had just talked to the head writer of What the Heart Knows. The show had been canceled. The ratings had been so poor that they weren’t even going to finish out the story lines. It had already been replaced with a couple of game shows. The distributor was trying to shop the show to a cable network, but in the meantime Alice would have to sit tight and live off her limited savings.

Marrying Kevin would solve three problems. It would entitle her to his financial support, and it would prove to Lucy that Kevin loved Alice the most. It would also force her parents to accept the union. Alice and her mother would plan the wedding together, and everyone would get swept up in the excitement. It would make the family whole again. And Lucy would have to swallow her hurt pride and get over it.

As soon as she had gotten the engagement diamond on her finger, Alice called her parents triumphantly. She was stunned to discover that instead of offering congratulations, they were harshly critical.

“Have you set a date?” her mother had asked.

“Not yet. I thought you and I would go over some ideas together and—”

“There’s no need to involve me in your plans,” her mother said. “Dad and I will attend the wedding, if you want us to. But planning and paying for it is your responsibility.”

“What? I’m your first daughter to get married—and you’re not going to give me a wedding?”

“We’ll be more than happy to pay for a wedding when our family is healed. But as things stand now, you’ve gained your happiness at the expense of your sister’s. And in consideration for her feelings, that means we can’t support your relationship with Kevin. That also means that we’re not going to be supplementing your monthly income any longer.”

“I feel like I’m being disowned,” Alice cried in astonished fury. “I can’t believe how unfair this is!”

“You’ve created a situation that’s unfair to everyone, Alice. Including yourself. There are so many events ahead of us … holidays, births, illnesses … things we need to go through as a family. And that won’t be possible until you’ve worked things out with Lucy.”

Outraged, Alice had repeated the conversation to Kevin, who had shrugged and said they should probably put off the wedding.

“Until Lucy gets over losing you? She’ll stay single for the next fifty years, just to be a bitch.”

“You can’t make her start going out again,” Kevin said.

Alice was deep in thought. “As soon as Lucy gets a new guy, she can’t be the victim anymore. My parents will have to admit that she’s gone on with her life. And then they’ll have to give me a wedding, and things will go back to the way they’ve always been.”

“Where are you going to get this guy for her?”

“You know a lot of people on the island. Who do you suggest?”

He gave her a startled glance. “This is getting weird, Alice. I’m not going to fix up my ex-girlfriend with one of my buddies.”

“Not a close friend. Just a normal, decent-looking guy who would appeal to her.”

“Even if I can come up with someone, how are you going to…” Kevin’s voice trailed away as he read her stubborn expression. “I don’t know. Maybe one of the Nolans. I heard Alex is getting a divorce.”

“No divorced guys. Lucy won’t go for that.”

“The middle brother, Sam, is single. He has a vineyard.”

“Perfect. How do we get them together?”

“You want me to introduce them?”

“No, it has to be secret. Lucy would never agree to go out with someone that either of us had suggested.”

Kevin considered how to get two people to go out together without revealing that you were the one behind it. “Alice, do we really have to—”

“Yes.”

“I guess Sam owes me one,” Kevin said reflectively. “I did some ground work for him a couple years back, and I didn’t charge him anything.”

“Good. Call in the favor, then. Get Sam Nolan to take Lucy out.”

* * *

Holly giggled as Sam hoisted her spindly body to carry her through the vineyard on his shoulders. “I’m tall!” she cried. “Look at me!”

She weighed no more than dandelion fluff, her small arms loosely wrapped around his forehead.

“I told you to wash your hands after breakfast,” Sam said.

“How did you know I didn’t?”

“Because they’re sticky, and they’re in my hair.”

A giggle floated over his head. They had made s’mores pancakes, their own invention, which Mark almost certainly wouldn’t have allowed had he been there. But Mark had spent the night at